Study Drop: Did You Know Yoga Has This Awesome Benefit?

You already know yoga makes you feel all kinds of Om-azing, but new research in the Journal of Clinical Oncology gives scientific evidence that it can significantly help reduce fatigue and inflammation, particularly in breast cancer survivors.

Researchers at Ohio State University assigned 200 breast cancer survivors to either a twice-weekly 90-minute hatha yoga program or a control group (who didn’t do any yoga) and found that yoga practitioners had significantly less fatigue, more vitality, and lower blood markers of inflammation after three months than did control group members.

“We wanted to look at breast cancer survivors because fatigue is an important problem for them post treatment, as is cardiorespiratory fitness. Data from other labs suggest that 30 to 40 percent of breast cancer survivors may experience significant levels of fatigue that interfere with daily life in some cases several years post treatment,” lead author Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., told SELF. “And women who have undergone chemotherapy have cardiorespiratory fitness that is 30 percent lower than sedentary peers.”

Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues selected hatha yoga, a more gentle, pose-based form of yoga, because it’s restorative and easily adaptable for anyone with physical limitations.

So why is this all a big deal? First, Kiecolt-Glaser says, for breast cancer survivors, fatigue, vitality and inflammation are all major issues. “And inflammation is associated with many age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, frailty and functional decline,” she says.

And here’s something cool: You don’t have to be a cancer survivor to benefit. “I do believe that people who are not cancer survivors who are concerned about inflammation and fatigue could easily see similar benefits,” Kiecolt-Glaser says.